In the past the photographing of surgical specimens or the like has been effected by simply placing the specimen on a work surface or upon a towel and photographing the specimen. Such procedure while a simple means of effecting the photographing has caused problems in staining the work surface due to leak through of blood, serum and other body fluids. Further, size and spatial orientation are not provided in the developed photograph. If a reference object is physically placed alongside the specimen to be photographed, complications arise due to the attention required in obtaining the reference object, of proper size, positioning it and the introduction of a non-sterile object to the area.